Monthly Archives: March 2011

El Edwards Talks Purpose And Meaning

Mondays aren’t always such fun. But I was privileged to spend an hour or so of mine today with El Edwards, interviewing her as part of my occasional series on purpose and meaning. If you haven’t met El, she’s the woman behind the site Truth Passion Joy. She’s a writer & digital strategist on a…

Tired Of Thinking Like An Ugly Sister? Step Into Your Cinderella Slippers and Rock!

It’s epidemic. Smart, talented people, out of touch with how capable they are. Waiting for some fairy godmother to come along and make it okay for them to wear the coveted crystal slippers. You know how it is. The boss you want to endorse you. The client you want to adulate you. The community you…

Hero Or Failure: You Decide

Last Friday I was writing about working on purpose. And over the weekend, I was asking myself what makes the difference between times when I am really able to do that versus those when I’m not. I got to figuring that it all came down to what I was telling myself about the likely outcome…

How Safe Is It To Work On Purpose In a Dodgy Economy?

Purpose. That’s a word that some New-Agers have cannibalised to the point where I often want to disown it. That is, until I’m talking to people who are trying to grapple with it because they’ve got to the inescapable point in their lives of wanting purpose to be what drives them, and finding themselves struggling…

How To Re-Engage With Your Job (Even When You’d Really Rather Not)

You didn’t imagine you’d be sat there much longer. But the uncertainties in the marketplace are making your job search or longed for promotion take more time than you’d hoped. One of the most soul-destroying things is turning up for a job every day when you outgrew it some time ago, but need to stick…

Simply Grateful

This isn’t the post I thought I’d publish today. That was something about the Zen of the 9-5, and keeping your head when all around are losing theirs. Driving back from my morning coffee ritual, I was hatching the story line, stopping from time to time to take happy eyefuls of verges lined with golden…

Warning: More Government Insanity About Jobs On The Way

You’ve got to love the UK coalition government. A couple of weeks ago they were expressing disappointment that the private sector may not, after all, be able to pick up the slack on public sector job losses. And today Iain Duncan Smith pronounced that the unemployment issue is really one of inefficient job matching. “It’s…

How I Recovered From The Evil Grip Of A Vampire Boss

Maybe it’s because it’s spring and they can smell the sap rising. But after a dormant winter, news of a plague of vampire boss attacks has reached my real and virtual office again this week. How can you tell if your boss is a vampire? Well, if you’re constantly feeling exhausted, that nothing you do…

5 Golden Career Rules Your Parents Taught You (And Why You Should Ditch Them)

Maybe you were one of those lucky kids whose parents were pretty sorted, and supported your self-actualization growing up? I wasn’t, and neither were most of the people I work with. It’s not that our folks were bad (okay, actually some were awful). Sometimes they just taught us too well how to fit into the…